Sealed plastic pouches are used to store a range of liquids, fluids, or semi-fluids (referred to as “fluids”) such as syrup for soft drinks, laundry detergent, orange juice, paint, soap, glue etc. These sealed pouches may include a port. A user opens the port and connects a tube to the opened port (or if no port exists, then the user may puncture the pouch with the tube). The other end of the tube links to a pump. The pump extracts the fluid from the pouch and directs the fluid to a dispenser (e.g., a soda-fountain, a nozzle, etc.). A pump is not necessary. The fluid may be squeezed out of the pouch by air pressure on the exterior of the pouch or by gravity.
Pouches typically include a top flexible sheet joined with a bottom flexible sheet. Fluid occupies space between the top and bottom sheets. The pump and/or the port prevents ambient air from replacing pumped fluid. Thus, as the pump extracts fluid from the pouch, the top and bottom sheets wrinkle and the space between the top and bottom sheets shrinks.
Once the space between the top and bottom sheets has shrunk to a certain extent and a sufficient number of wrinkles have been introduced, the pump can no longer extract fluid from the pouch. The pouch is now obsolete. The user discards the obsolete pouch and attaches a fresh pouch. Fluid remaining in the obsolete pouch is wasted. Many existing pouches become obsolete with 20% or more of the original mass of fluid remaining.
Accordingly, there is a need for new pouches with properties that delay obsolescence until a greater amount of the original fluid has been extracted.